Swift action, fascinating characters in a splendid love story by an author whose books have just achieved a great popular triumph in England tells how love made its way into a walled-in house and a walled-in heart.

of some steps dropped seemingly
endlessly one below the other, leading at last to a cement-floored
vestibule, cheerless and uninviting, which opened on to the street.

Perhaps there was no particular reason why the vestibule should have
been other than it was, seeing that Wallater's Buildings had not been
designed for the habitual loiterer. For such as he there remains
always the "luxurious entrance-hall" of hotel advertisement.

As far as the inhabitants of "Wallater's" were concerned, they
clattered over the cement flooring of the vestibule in the mornings,
on their way to work, without pausing to cast an eye of criticism upon
its general aspect of uncomeliness, and dragged tired feet across it
in an evening with no other thought but that of how many weary steps
there were to climb before the room which served as "home" should be
attained.

But to the well-dressed, middle-aged man who now paused, half in
doubt, on the threshold of the Buildings, the sordid-looking
vestibule, with its bare floor and d